1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a hypermedia authoring system.
2. Description of Related Art
Authoring systems are based on cognitive models for how writing takes place. For example, University of North Carolina""s Writing Environment provides four workspaces called the network mode, the tree mode, the editor mode and the text mode. Smith, J. B., and Lansman, M., A Cognitive Basis for a Computer Writing Environment, TR 87-032, Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (June 1988). The Writing Environment is based on a cognitive model that reflects the need to organize resources before writing and to structure outlines according to both logical and presentational criteria.
Other authoring systems that provide a variety of similar features are summarized as follows: SEPIA is a hypermedia authoring system that has four workspaces: 1) content space, 2) rhetorical space, 3) planning space, and 4) argumentation space. Streitz, N., et al., xe2x80x9cSEPIA: A Cooperative Hypermedia Authoring Environmentxe2x80x9d, In R. Rada (ed.), Groupware and Authoring, Academic Press, London 1996, pp. 241-264. Finally, CMIF provides: 1) a Hierarchy view to edit the hierarchy of a hypermedia document; and 2) a Channel view to specify synchronization among the components. Hardman, L., van Rossum, G., and Bulterman, D. C. A., xe2x80x9cStructured Multimedia Authoringxe2x80x9d, ACM Multimedia 93 Proceedings (August 1993), pp. 283-289.
However, none of the above authoring schemes support an explicit representation of relationships between the logical and presentational organizations of the document being authored. In addition, current techniques do not provide sufficient support for navigating through the information represented by the workspaces.
The invention provides a hypermedia authoring system that enables an author to generate a document using a goals outline and a presentation outline and provides a technique to relate the goals and the presentation outlines. The goals outline organizes the information content of the document contained in cards in a logical structure while the presentation outline is directed to a physical appearance of the document.
The goals outline is generated by instantiating document prototypes that contain slots which indicate a type of information that is to be included in the document prototype. Each of the slot types may be linked to the cards by links which may be mandatory, optional or user defined. A visual display of the goals outline permits the author to select a prototype document from a directory of prototype documents and instantiate the selected prototype document that corresponds to a node of the goals outline.
Once instantiated, the hypermedia authoring system provides a display that permits the author to link each of the slot types of an instantiated document prototype with cards in a card database. Cards may also be created from scratch by the author or imported from external sources and linked with the instantiated document prototype.
The hypermedia authoring system also provides a display for creating a presentation outline in the form of Bento-boxes. Each Bento-box includes a layout workspace in which spacer objects may be placed. Spatial and temporal parameters may also be specified corresponding to each spacer object. The spacer objects may be linked to cards in the card database and an indication of a link relationship with the goals outline is also provided. When a spacer object is linked to a card that is also linked to a node in the goals outline, the Bento-box indicates such a goals outline relationship. Thus, while constructing a presentation outline, the author is also informed of the portions of the goals outline that is addressed and vice versa.
The Bento-boxes may be linked to each other in a stack for a sequential slide presentation, for example. In addition, the Bento-boxes may be hyperlinked to other Bento-boxes where anchors for the hyperlink may be within any of the spacer objects. Thus, a display of all the Bento-boxes of a hypermedia document including the linkages among the Bento-boxes would show a linkage path established by the hyperlinks between Bento-boxes.
In a display of the presentation outline and the linkage paths, one of the Bento-boxes or a Bento-box stack may be selected to show specifically the links to and from the selected Bento-box. In addition, the presentation outline and the goals outline may be simultaneously displayed showing the relationship between the presentation outline and the goals outline.
For example, if both the presentation outline and the goals outline are displayed and a Bento-box is selected in the presentation outline, corresponding nodes in the goals outline are highlighted to indicate the link between the presentation outline and the goals outline based on the cards that are linked to both of the outlines. The highlighting of the selected Bento-boxes and the corresponding nodes of the goals outline may be color coded to indicate a measure of overlap in terms of the number of cards that are common between the selected Bento-box and the highlighted nodes of the goals outline. The selection of a node in the goals outline results in similar highlighting of related Bento-boxes.
If a complete presentation outline is selected, the highlighting shows a measure of coverage between the presentation outline and the goals outline. That is, by selecting either the complete presentation outline or the complete goals outline, an indication of coverage in terms of the number of cards linked to both the goals and the presentation outlines as compared to the number of cards that are linked only to each of the goals or presentation outlines.
The hypermedia authoring system also provides a navigation facility based on visual metaphors familiar to the author. For example, a kitchen metaphor may be used where card databases are maintained either in cabinets or the freezer compartment of a refrigerator and the cutting board corresponds to a display of the presentation outline. Similar metaphors may be constructed using other familiar scenes such as an office or a studio.